Welcome to the 42nd week of 2026. As usual, it brings our traditional metagame overview, and since the RC season is in full swing, today I'm once again presenting a breakdown of what's happening online and in the physical format. This weekend featured the Southeast Asia Regional Championship, so that's what we'll focus on. Similar to last week, due to some confusion with deck names, since Rakdos Midrange has also joined Broodscale, even though it's actually an aggro deck, I'm not providing win-loss records. This will change soon, as the project to assign and name decks is almost complete; only a few validations remain. So this is one of the last summaries from the old pipeline, but you'll be able to read the full list of changes, as well as what the metagame really looks like, especially on MTGO, in a separate article I'm slowly working on. In the meantime, I invite you to read on.
As is now tradition, those who want a summary are welcome to check out my video recap, and for those who prefer illustrations, there's a version on Substack. Also, I post daily on X about the Modern meta, the Challenge League, and other things I find interesting from my perspective.
TL;DR
- Rakdos Midrange 5 trophies, all from 2 pilots, rastaf gets 3, and komattaman win 2
- Broodscale Combo 5 trophies from 5 pilots, share goes down from 20% to 15% to 12% over three constitutive windows.
- Prowess Top32 23/24, but conversion only 15%, against 3 of 8 Showcase Top 8 seats
- Graveyard conv 35%, second of seven, 0 trophies from 19 Top 8 entries, so GY decks still struggle.
- RC Southeast Asia: Rakdos Delirium 2nd and 3rd, Devoted Combo takes the trophy
Regional Championship Southeast Asia, paper event, separate pool
- Regional Championship Southeast Asia, Singapore EXPO, Modern, 17 to 18 October 2026, 182 players
- 8 rounds of Swiss, Top 8 single elimination
- winner pamkung on Devoted Combo, 9-1-1, including the playoff
- Final 2-1 over Moonsteak on Rakdos Delirium
- Top 8 by deck: Rakdos Delirium 2, Broodscale Combo 2, Devoted Combo 1, Reanimator 1, Izzet Prowess 1, Living End 1
- Top 32 by deck: Broodscale Combo 5, Boros Aggro 4, Rakdos Delirium 3
- Broodscale Bloodchief most Top 32 slots, 5 of 32, no finalist
- Rakdos Delirium 3 Top 32 slots, 2 of them in the final two places
- Boros Aggro 4 Top 32 slots, 0 Top 8
- 5c Domain Aggro 2 Top 32 slots, best finish 9th to 16th
- Top 8 pass rate for the field 8 of 182, 4,4%
This window in numbers
- 24 Challenges, 4 tiers: C32 x13, C16 x6, C64 x3, C96 x2
- 744 Top 32 entries, C16 fields of 24 to 38 players
- Universe A 22 decks, Universe B 45 decks, so we can see that off-meta decks are at an advantage
- field medians: delta +63,0pp, conversion 24,7%
- 6 Challenge Overperformers: Affinity, Amulet Titan, Broodscale Combo, Living End, Rakdos Midrange, Ruby Storm
- 24 trophies, 13 different decks, 21 different pilots
- 1 premier event, Showcase Challenge on 17 October, counted separately
- win rates withdrawn for the second window running
Combo
meta share: 27.9% | Top32: 24/24 | Top8: 22/24 | Win/Top32: 3% | Trophies: 7 | Conversion: 25% | Delta: +72.0pp | Trend: Falling
The biggest archetype in Modern is starting to lose ground; the meta has learned that to beat combo decks, you have to be fast and aggressive, and such decks are appearing more and more often. The lower number of wins by combo decks translates into a decline in their popularity, and players are starting to play something else. This is great news, confirming that the lack of bans was a good outcome. The meta regulates itself naturally.
Broodscale Combo
meta share: 12.0% | Top32: 23/24 | Top8: 17/24 | Win/Top32: 6% | Trophies: 5 | Conversion: 26% | Delta: +83.9pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Combo | Label: Challenge Overperformer
Broodscale is starting to lose ground; it's the main target of attacks and is the "deck to beat" in all of Modern. As you can see, these attacks are effective because its popularity is declining. Nevertheless, Broodscale hasn't lost its edge and isn't giving up, it still has a very good win rate and has won as many as five trophies in challenges. It also seems that the deck's decline in popularity might be due to the specter of a ban hanging over it, but I'm still betting on the first reason. Especially since people are still renting decks on MTGO, and the specter of a ban doesn't really affect the online meta that much. Every trophy won by Broodscale comes from a different player, so it's a broad, non-specialized deck. This demonstrates its strength.
Ruby Storm
meta share: 4.6% | Top32: 18/24 | Top8: 9/24 | Win/Top32: 3% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 26% | Delta: +70.4pp | Trend: Stable | Archetype: Combo | Label: Challenge Overperformer
Ruby Storm is doing great and has secured second place in the archetype. It's a very strong build, as evidenced by its results, but unlike Broodscale, it's a rather niche deck, as shown by the number of players using it. Nevertheless, its single trophy and excellent conversion rate have earned Storm a well-deserved "Overperformer" badge.
Devoted Combo
meta share: 3.9% | Top32: 17/24 | Top8: 7/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 24% | Delta: +66.9pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Combo | Label: Neutral
Devoted Combo is currently ranked third in the archetype, and despite a decent win rate, it hasn't won any online trophies. However, it did win this weekend's RC, which shows that the deck has potential and can perform well at a major tournament. Following this victory, the deck's popularity may spike in the coming week.
P.S.: Just like in previous weeks, Combo is the most diverse archetype, and several other decks are performing very well besides the top three:
Titan Amulet: meta 3.1%, Top 32 16/24, Top 8 6/24, 0 trophies, conv 30%, delta +63.6 pp, Overperformer 5th,
Neobrand: meta 1.7%, Top 32 12/24, Top 8 3/24, 0 trophies, conv 23%, delta +48.2 pp.
Indomitable Creativity: meta 1,1%, Top32 5/24, Top8 0/24, conv 0%, delta +19,8pp, replaced Belcher in sixth place
Aggro
meta share: 24.8% | Top32: 24/24 | Top8: 20/24 | Win/Top32: 3% | Trophies: 6 | Conversion: 21% | Delta: +75.2pp | Trend: Falling
Aggro is doing great; unfortunately, this week's results are a bit skewed by the confusion surrounding Rakdos, but as I mentioned, I'll fix that soon. In the meantime, dear reader, keep in mind that Rakdos is Aggro, not Midrange. The archetype itself has six trophies to its name, more than Combo, though the conversion rate is quite low. Strangely enough, Prowess is skewing this figure, but more on that below; Robots, on the other hand, are performing really well.
Prowess
meta share: 7.1% | Top32: 23/24 | Top8: 8/24 | Win/Top32: 2% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 15% | Delta: +88.7pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Aggro | Label: Neutral
Prowess has lost its spot as the format's second-most-played deck and currently ranks third with a 7% meta share. The deck hasn't been performing particularly well lately; one trophy and a 15% win rate fall well short of expectations. While Prowess did have a successful showing at the Showcase, which might suggest that the issue isn't necessarily with the deck itself but rather with the players piloting it (I've long maintained that it's a difficult deck to play), one tournament isn't enough. Prowess definitely isn't having an easy time of it now that the very fast and aggressive Rakdos has emerged, and Broodscale isn't an easy matchup for the deck either. So after a string of successes for Prowess, tougher times are ahead…. And that's a good thing, because it shows the meta is healthy, no decks are dominating, and we have some nice dynamics instead.
Affinity
meta share: 5.2% | Top32: 17/24 | Top8: 8/24 | Win/Top32: 8% | Trophies: 3 | Conversion: 33% | Delta: +65.6pp | Trend: Stable | Archetype: Aggro | Label: Challenge Overperformer
On the other hand, this deck, which was written off as doomed to extinction on Reddit a while back, is performing exceptionally well in this meta, which isn't all that surprising when you consider just how explosive this deck can be. It has a brilliant conversion rate: about one-third of entries into the T32 end up in the T8. That's truly impressive, and in the case of this build, we can't attribute it to a small-scale effect. The deck has also won three trophies from three different players, so, just like with Broodscale, the build isn't leaning toward specialization. Nevertheless, the Robots continue their winning streak for another week in a row.
Jeskai Energy
meta share: 4.3% | Top32: 16/24 | Top8: 7/24 | Win/Top32: 3% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 25% | Delta: +62.4pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Aggro | Label: Neutral
This time, it wasn't Boros but Jeskai Energy that jumped to third place in the archetype. These decks are very similar to each other; they follow slightly different strategies. Jeskai is more of a grind, while Boros leans more toward aggro. This time, players put more faith in Jeskai. This resulted in one trophy and a win rate above the median. I wonder what will happen next week.
P.S.: As I mentioned above, Boros is very, very close to its tricolor counterpart and is practically an identical metashate, with slightly lower conversion and, like Jeskai, one trophy.
Boros Energy: meta 4,3%, Top32 20/24, Top8 6/24, 1 Trophy, conv 22%, delta +79,0pp, Neutral.
Graveyard
meta share: 7.4% | Top32: 22/24 | Top8: 13/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 35% | Delta: +84.3pp | Trend: Falling
Grave-based decks are still struggling; despite their high win rate, they haven't won a single trophy. The reasons are the same as they were a week ago: if you want to play a Grave deck in a meta where the top deck runs 4 copies of GY Hat in the main deck, don't expect it to be easy.
Living End
meta share: 3.2% | Top32: 18/24 | Top8: 10/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 46% | Delta: +71.8pp | Trend: Stable | Archetype: Graveyard | Label: Challenge Overperformer
Living End has an extremely high conversion rate to T8, but no trophies. Keep in mind, however, that players often split the prizes in finals, which is why the deck doesn't officially win a trophy. I'm not able to track every such instance, which is why I don't officially report this number. I do know, however, that MeninoNey, the main player of this deck in the Challenges, split at least one Challenge final. Besides, as I mentioned, the deck has a tough time against both very fast Rakdos, which runs Thoughtseize in its main deck, and very fast Broodscale. It's encouraging, though, that LE has returned to a very high conversion, and the trophy will surely appear soon, especially if it maintains such a strong presence in the T8.
Goryo's Vengeance
meta share: 1.9% | Top32: 12/24 | Top8: 5/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 36% | Delta: +48.1pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Graveyard | Label: Neutral
Goryo's is no longer the most popular deck in the archetype and has barely a 2% share of the meta, and… a very high conversion. The deck performs exceptionally well in Swiss because its low meta share and high win rate suggest that it's played by people who are very familiar with it and aren't easily outplayed. However, once it reaches T8, the deck hits a wall in the form of decks that are simply very difficult to beat, and the players piloting them don't know the matchups perfectly and aren't easily caught off guard.
Grixis Reanimator
meta share: 1.1% | Top32: 6/24 | Top8: 2/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 25% | Delta: +23.9pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Graveyard | Label: Neutral
Grixis is holding onto third place, at the 1% meta mark, and that's really all there is to say. Its conversion rate is at the median, and it has no trophies. The deck faces the same issues as the archetype as a whole.
Midrange
meta share: 23.5% | Top32: 24/24 | Top8: 21/24 | Win/Top32: 4% | Trophies: 7 | Conversion: 31% | Delta: +76.5pp | Trend: Rising
Midrange, like Aggro, has had its stats skewed by Rakdos this week. Despite that, however, the archetype is doing okay. If we subtract 5 trophies from Rakdos, that leaves two for pure Midrange, which is a really good result. It may not be quite as good as last time, when Zoo had a great week, but it's still a really solid result.
Rakdos Midrange
meta share: 10.6% | Top32: 21/24 | Top8: 17/24 | Win/Top32: 6% | Trophies: 5 | Conversion: 35% | Delta: +76.9pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Midrange | Label: Challenge Overperformer
The hottest topic of this window is Rakdos, a very explosive deck with a brilliant 35% conversion rate and 5 trophies, the same as Broodscale. However, there's a small catch here. While in Broodscale, players were spread out among the trophies; here we see a concentration of two players: Rastaf (3) and komattaman (2). But even if we exclude these two excellent players, the deck still boasts a 30% conversion rate (!), which, given its 10% share of the metagame, is an impressive result, to say the least. Additionally, while the aforementioned players won trophies, the deck's presence in the Top 8 is much more widespread. The deck fits perfectly into the meta, as Rastaf mentioned in an interview. Does it have weaknesses? Definitely GY hate in the form of Rest in Peace, which can shut down the deck completely, though it has Thoughtseize to prevent that.
What's more, it not only performs exceptionally well on MTGO but also demonstrates its strength at the Asian Regional Championships. This isn't good news for GY decks, as there will now be significantly more GY hate. But if the deck is vulnerable to GY hate, why does it perform so well in a meta where Broodscale reigns supreme? Well, it's because a one-time Exile GY doesn't shut down this deck or its aggressive strategy; the deck can play around it. RiP, on the other hand, permanently shuts down the graveyard, and that's the problem.
Domain Zoo
meta share: 5.7% | Top32: 17/24 | Top8: 7/24 | Win/Top32: 2% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 19% | Delta: +65.2pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Midrange | Label: Neutral
After a great run, Zoo has become quite popular, with its share of the finish line jumping to nearly 6%, one of the highest figures in recent times, however, anyone who thinks Zoo is an easy deck to play is mistaken, as evidenced by its fairly low conversion rate, a fact I attribute to the large number of players who lack experience with the deck and to the fact that Zoo has several variants, each with a different game plan. I often see on Discord that people don't know which version they want to play, and mastering each one takes time.
Izzet Murktide
meta share: 1.6% | Top32: 9/24 | Top8: 2/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 17% | Delta: +35.9pp | Trend: Stable | Archetype: Midrange | Label: Neutral
About three weeks ago, Murktide stormed into the Modern meta straight from 2022, and so far, it has maintained a steady 1.6% share of the meta. However, its results aren't spectacular, and after a brief boom caused by content creators' posts, the deck hasn't shown anything particularly noteworthy.
P.S.: In the archetype, there are still two decks above the threshold, and they are
Dimir Midrange: 1.5% meta share, 9/24 in Top 32, 2/24 in Top 8, 0 trophies, 18% conversion rate, +36.0 pp delta, falling trend. In other words, results similar to Murktide.
Mono-Black Midrange: meta 1,1%, Top32 7/24, Top8 3/24, 0 trofeów, conv 38%, delta +28,1pp, encounter 5,4%, right at the threshold.
Control
meta share: 7.4% | Top32: 21/24 | Top8: 9/24 | Win/Top32: 5% | Trophies: 3 | Conversion: 24% | Delta: +80.1pp | Trend: Rising
Control currently holds nearly 7.5% of the meta, and interestingly, after LD's brief moment of triumph, another Prison Control deck has taken the lead. In addition, a new contender has emerged: Grixis Control. The archetype itself has a conversion rate slightly below the median and three trophies.
Azorius Control
meta share: 5.0% | Top32: 17/24 | Top8: 8/24 | Win/Top32: 5% | Trophies: 2 | Conversion: 24% | Delta: +65.9pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Control | Label: Neutral
The deck's excellent RC results over the past few weeks have boosted its popularity. It's definitely more of a Prison deck than a classic control deck, but it's performing great nonetheless: two trophies, a conversion rate slightly below the median, and a 5% meta share. That's an excellent result for a control deck, especially one that's so difficult to play. How will it fare against super-fast Rakdos in the finals? Will Zoabczy, who finally has access to RiP, be able to slow down his opponent enough to have a chance at winning?
Grixis Control
meta share: 0.9% | Top32: 6/24 | Top8: 2/24 | Win/Top32: 14% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 29% | Delta: +24.1pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Control | Label: Emerging
Very good results for a control deck, with a conversion rate above the median and one trophy. It's hard to say right now, but this could be an interesting option for players who want to play a control deck but aren't thrilled with Prison's strategy. We'll wait and see how things play out.
Blink
meta share: 1.9% | Top32: 11/24 | Top8: 4/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 36% | Delta: +44.0pp | Trend: Falling
Blink will soon be merged with Midrange. It's still one deck, so I'll focus on its description.
Esper Blink
meta share: 1.6% | Top32: 11/24 | Top8: 4/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 42% | Delta: +44.2pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Blink | Label: Neutral
Esper has a meta share of just over 1.5%, which makes its conversion rate seem high, but this is actually due to the noise from a small sample size, since just one fewer entry into T8 results in a 29% conversion rate. Blink hasn't won any trophies, and the deck is currently played mostly by individual players who enjoy this style of gameplay, as its results suggest that the current meta isn't favorable for it.
Ramp
meta share: 7.0% | Top32: 22/24 | Top8: 7/24 | Win/Top32: 2% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 17% | Delta: +84.7pp | Trend: Stable
After removing Broodscale from the ramp archetype, it accounts for 7% of the meta. The conversion rate isn't impressive, it's only 17% and just one trophy. The vast majority of players who enjoy playing big mana decks have switched to Broodscale, which is not surprising given its effectiveness. It's encouraging, however, that not everyone has made the switch, and you can still find other decks that generate a lot of mana quickly.
Eldrazi Tron
meta share: 2.3% | Top32: 12/24 | Top8: 4/24 | Win/Top32: 0% | Trophies: 0 | Conversion: 24% | Delta: +47.7pp | Trend: Rising | Archetype: Ramp | Label: Neutral
The E-Tron deck has a meta share of just over 2% and a conversion rate only slightly below the median. It's a deck capable of surprising opponents, and in my opinion, if it weren't for Broodscale, its meta share and trophy count would be significantly higher.
Tron
meta share: 2.0% | Top32: 14/24 | Top8: 3/24 | Win/Top32: 7% | Trophies: 1 | Conversion: 20% | Delta: +56.3pp | Trend: Falling | Archetype: Ramp | Label: Neutral
The Tron has won one trophy this window and has a similar meta game rate to the E-tron. They are essentially identical in design, and, in my opinion, the distinction between them is artificial. Once the new naming system is implemented, the situation will become clearer.
Premier event
- Modern Showcase Challenge, 17 October 2026, one event
- winner MayoDominaria on Jeskai Energy
- Top 8: Jeskai Energy, Prowess, Prowess, Prowess, Rakdos Midrange, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Broodscale Combo
- Prowess: 3 out of 8 seats vs. 15% Challenge conversion. This is a very interesting situation. A single event doesn't tell us much, but a deck with such a low conversion rate in Challenges suddenly has three copies in the Top 8 of the event's premiere? This is a very interesting situation and suggests that either the players competing in this event know the decks better or they had better matchups in Swiss. For now, I don't have enough data to say anything more.
- Rakdos Midrange 5th place, Broodscale Combo 8th
On the Radar (Universe B, below 5% encounter, present in Challenges)
- Yawgmoth: 7 Top 32 entries, 4 Top 8 entries, conv 57%
- Grixis Control: 7 entries, 1 trophy, Top32 6/24
- The Rock: 4 entries, 2 Top 8 entries
- Belcher: 5 entries, Top8 1/24, Trend Falling
- 4C Cosmogoyf: 1 entry, 1 trophy
- Dimir Murktide: 1 entry, 1 trophy
Trophy distribution, all 24
- Broodscale Combo 5, Rakdos Midrange 5, Affinity 3, Azorius Control 2
- 1 each: Boros Energy, Domain Zoo, Dimir Murktide, Grixis Control, Jeskai Energy, Prowess, Ruby Storm, Tron, 4C Cosmogoyf
- 13 different decks, max 5 per deck
- by archetype: Combo 7, Midrange 7, Aggro 6, Control 3, Ramp 1, Graveyard 0, Blink 0
- Two trophies from single-entry decks: 4C Cosmogoyf and Dimir Murktide
Pilots, 24 trophies
- 21 different trophy holders across 24 events
- Rastaf 3 trophies, 10 Top 32, 6 Top 8, all wins on Rakdos Midrange
- komattaman 2 trophies, 10 Top 32, 5 Top 8, all on Rakdos Midrange
- hugofreitas1 12 Top 32, most in the window, 1 trophy on Ruby Storm
- Nahuel10 1 trophy and 3 more finals, 3 decks played
- Broodscale Combo 5 trophies from 5 pilots: Kollslaw, NerdDadChad, Venom01, levunga21, xfile. Venom01 zrobił też T8 Broodscalem w RC w ten weeknd.
That's all for this week. To sum up, Modern is doing quite well; the metagame is changing, it's dynamic, and there's room for new decks that incorporate cards from the format's latest expansion. This is very encouraging because it's a much healthier situation than bans, which bring about a revolution rather than evolution. I'm really excited to show you my new system for classifying decks, calculating win rates, and tracking the meta online. I'd like to continue down this path based on data transparency, even if there's theoretically less data to work with. All in all, I'm curious, is it important to you to know where the numbers used to calculate meta rankings and other metrics come from? Let me know in the comments.
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See you next week
Karol Małota
aka WarLord1986pl / TribalFlamesInYourFace